Kanye West ignited controversy Saturday when he tweeted in support of a well-known Black Lives Matter detractor.
“I like how Candace [Owens] thinks,” he said April 21. The rapper, who recently returned to Twitter ahead of the reported release of two new albums, didn’t strike the right chord with fans on this post.
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/987696355341553665
Owen is a Black conservative who in addition to backing President Trump and the NRA, has slammed Black Lives Matter backers as having a “victim mentality.”
The shout out led Owens to fangirl and she tweeted, “I’m freaking out. @kanyewest ….please take a meeting with me. I tell every single person that everything that I have been inspired to do, was written in your music. I am my own biggest fan because you made it okay. I need you to help wake up the Black community.”
I’m freaking out. @kanyewest ….please take a meeting with me. I tell every single person that everything that I have been inspired to do, was written in your music.
I am my own biggest fan, because you made it okay. I need you to help wake up the black community. https://t.co/Uz1nB9K0Oz— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) April 21, 2018
But many others were not onboard with Ye’s support for her.
“Kanye West really went from ‘George Bush doesn’t care about Black people’ to.. this,” a fan tweeted. “I’ve defended him through and through but Candace Owens, really? I’m actually heartbroken. He been gone.”
“Bruh get this n—- out of here please,” someone else remarked.
“How many times can Kanye signal his affinity for people with anti-Black policies and positions before it takes a toll on how Black fans feel about him?” music critic Touré wondered.
“I can’t believe Kanye West endorsed alt right hero Candace Owens,” another person tweeted. “Scary times indeed.”
“Aside from being an insane alt right race pimp, Candace Owens thinks Donald Trump is literally the messiah not you @kanyewest so you might want to reconsider,” actor Tom Arnold tweeted.
“I am told this is the clip that Kanye saw and loved,” tweeted reporter Shaun King of Owens’ remarks about BLM. “It’s sad actually. For him and for her. A market has always and will always exist for men and women like this who say what bigoted white folk love to hear. They will always have a seat at somebody’s table.”
https://twitter.com/AT_Tunechi/status/987768977861545984
Yet at least one person wasn’t surprised about West, who made headlines when he met with Trump in 2016.
https://twitter.com/StSusanHunt/status/987763864468164610
Still, Owens held her own and posted several tweets knocking her detractors.
Kanye West tweets 7 words and leftists rush to smear me as far-right & anti-LGBT. So what terrified them?
The truth did. The left is losing control of their blacks. Ready to be awakened? Watch the truth about my journey off the plantation w/ @RubinReport. https://t.co/YviWe4PQk0 pic.twitter.com/GcN35gBoIa— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) April 21, 2018
When @PerezHilton @TomArnold and @ShaunKing, 3 white men, rush to viciously attack the freedom of two black people who refuse to be pawns to a leftist ideology—it should ring as a wake up call to the world about who the real racists are.
None of you white men own my blackness.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) April 22, 2018
Far right? Allow me to clarify: I believe the black community can do it without hand-outs. I believe the Democrats have strapped us to our past to prevent us from our futures. And I won’t stop fighting until all black Americans see that.
I’m not far right—I’m free. pic.twitter.com/wtqCuYPtM2— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) April 21, 2018